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We’re almost two months into all the enrichment classes we’ve been attending (bible study, Chinese playgroup, dance class) and Layla’s started to open up and reveal her spirited side to everyone.

Today at dance class, she busied herself playing catch with another little girl — the feisty one who comes unaccompanied every week. (All this went on during the “breaks,” in between activities or when the teacher was attending to individual students to help them with their poses.) They laughed and ran in circles and took turns falling over, sometimes on purpose, and I was so glad to see Layla finally having a really good time and not needing to be by my side.

But suddenly, the other little girl fell again. And she didn’t stop crying. Even after the teacher carried her and tried to console her. And after I took over and tried to figure out where she was hurting. (She was clutching at her arm, but when I moved it she said it didn’t hurt.) She didn’t stop crying when the teacher found her dad sitting in the waiting area and asked him to have a look at her arm. She refused to rejoin the class and in between cries, insisted she needed a doctor. Finally they left, with her still crying all the way.

I wasn’t sure what to do. I didn’t know how to check her arm, in the first place. Maybe it wasn’t even her arm that was hurt. And I didn’t take note of what position she fell in, as I’d expected her to pick herself up and dust herself off and be on her way. And I didn’t know what assistance to offer to her dad. And I certainly didn’t know how responsible to feel about this, even though she’d fallen on her own with no-one nearby, but it was after all my kid playing with his?

But there is one thing I know I should do. Take a first aid course for parents, because kids will play and accidents will happen.